The Justice Project has released two new pol­i­cy reviews about jail­house snitch tes­ti­mo­ny and expand­ed dis­cov­ery in crim­i­nal cas­es, both top­ics that are part of the orga­ni­za­tion’s broad­er National Agenda for Reform ini­tia­tive.

Jailhouse Snitch Testimony: A Policy Review offers rec­om­men­da­tions and solu­tions for improv­ing the stan­dards of admis­si­bil­i­ty of in-cus­tody infor­mant or ​“snitch tes­ti­mo­ny.” The review includes an overview of cur­rent snitch tes­ti­mo­ny laws, case stud­ies, infor­ma­tion about states and juris­dic­tions that have enact­ed suc­cess­ful meth­ods for safe­guard­ing against per­jured tes­ti­mo­ny, voic­es of sup­port, mod­el pol­i­cy, and key sta­tis­tics. The review notes that by improv­ing stan­dards for admis­si­bil­i­ty of jail­house infor­mant evi­dence at tri­al, states can help ensure that find­ers of fact are able to make more informed deci­sions when life and death are at stake. The Justice Project’s key pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions for states con­sid­er­ing snitch tes­ti­mo­ny reform include: 

  • Written pre­tri­al dis­clo­sures of wit­ness com­pen­sa­tion arrange­ments and oth­er infor­ma­tion bear­ing on witness credibility
  • Pretrial hear­ings on the reli­a­bil­i­ty of a par­tic­u­lar informant’s testimony
  • A require­ment that accom­plice or in-cus­tody infor­mant tes­ti­mo­ny be corroborated
  • Cautionary jury instruc­tions alert­ing the jury to the reli­a­bil­i­ty issues pre­sent­ed by snitch testimony. 
Expanded Discovery in Criminal Caes: A Policy Review includes rec­om­men­da­tions for uni­form, manda­to­ry and enforced dis­cov­ery laws to help ensure a fair­er pro­ce­dure and to safe­guard against wrong­ful con­vic­tions. The review notes that effec­tive reform leg­is­la­tion will include open-file dis­cov­ery, manda­to­ry and auto­mat­ic dis­clo­sures, appro­pri­ate tim­ing, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of exchange, and reme­dies for non­com­pli­ance. These prac­tices have been endorsed by groups such as the American Bar Association, the National Conference of Commissioners for Uniform Law, and many state crim­i­nal jus­tice com­mis­sions.

These new reviews and sim­i­lar resources on issues such as oth­er crim­i­nal jus­tice reform pol­i­cy reviews on eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and cus­to­di­al inter­ro­ga­tion reform, post-con­vic­tion DNA test­ing, stan­dards for cap­i­tal defense coun­sel, and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct are avail­able online at www​.the​jus​ti​ce​pro​ject​.org. Hardcopies are avail­able by con­tact­ing The Justice Project at info@​thejusticeproject.​org.
(The Justice Project, September 2007). See also Resources and Innocence.

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